Musician: SAR a platform for elevating traditional Chinese cultural heritage

Hong Kong is the jewel in the crown of China, Asia and the world for showcasing traditional Chinese cultural heritage far and wide, while incorporating other cultural influences to invigorate its own, says Tan Dun, an esteemed Chinese composer, musician and conductor.

“Hong Kong stands as a textbook example of elevating the Chinese traditional cultural profile and earning it global currency,” says Tan, who’s putting on a new hat this year as ambassador for cultural promotion, an appointment from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government.

“How fantastic it would have been if China had a dozen cities like Hong Kong, the epitome of ‘East meets West’! But, the fact that we have only one Hong Kong holds the city’s peerless sway and agency in promoting Chinese intangible cultural heritage,” says Tan, displaying unmistakable pride.

It’s by no means hyperbole to say that Hong Kong has done more than its fair share to conserve Chinese traditional heritage, yet not in an ostentatious manner, but rather quietly and consistently, he says. “Look at how well those Chinese antiques and quaint furniture have been preserved and restored in Hong Kong! You’ll be blown away by the epic job.”

In Tan’s view, it’s evident that the SAR has placed a premium on conserving traditional Chinese culture, taken the role upon itself, and holding dear the city’s kinship with Chinese culture. The city is running ahead of the “arts tech” curve, and few cities in the world can match Hong Kong’s pulsating vigor and infectious zeal.

“All these shining spots coming together inspire me to envisage what sparks Hong Kong could ignite with Dunhuang or Xi’an (respectively the home of the Mogao Caves and the Terracotta Warriors, which embody the virtuoso mastery of art and sculpture of Chinese antiquity), as well as with New York, Amsterdam, London and Paris,” where world-class museums are clustered, Tan says.

Hong Kong is a must-stop destination for all international art performances, exhibitions and study exchanges, as well as a popular location for foreign investment, adds Tan. “The avenue for exporting Chinese culture and importing the foreign equivalent is coming in handy here,” he said.

He continued: “A celebrated culture with an enduring presence and influence bears two attributes — wisdom and audacity. And Hong Kong has them under its belt.” Immersed in the kaleidoscopic city, where the past meets the present, the East merges with the West, and futuristic surrealism is punctuated by a stroke of nostalgia, Tan feels there’s an impulse and an itch to explore untapped artistic license and leeway.

Tan Dun’s Sound Vision in Chi Lin Nunnery — an immersive opera staged in the courtyard of the nunnery (in Kowloon) that he created to mark the 25th anniversary of the HKSAR’s establishment — was inspired by the consummate preservation of the Chinese ancient Buddhist complex.

“I was viscerally touched by the sight of perfectly conserved architecture fashioned in the style of the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD). The presence of historical relics is palpable to all senses. The soul-purging resonance and emotive echoing in me (that the nunnery afforded) urged me to give something back to it, through my music and the accompaniment of film, drama and dance in a meta-universe,” recalls Tan, speaking of the ability of wellpreserved cultural relics to evoke unbridled artistic creativity and imagination.

All these offer a boost for Tan’s faith in Hong Kong’s role as a diplomat spreading traditional Chinese cultural wisdom to the world.

“But I think Hong Kong has to go the extra mile in promoting more literary art,” Tan says, adding that he perceives it to be an integral and most soul-touching tapestry of Chinese traditional culture. It’s a missing piece in cultural and art promotion efforts, Tan says, comparing it to the commitment by Paris to translate and reimagine classic literary works.

“We may want to do away with some ostentatious and formalistic cultural practices that are somewhat skin-deep with little meaty substance.” He believes that such a practice may look visually captivating and extravagant but that viewers won’t identify with it. “This kind of practice is most likely to be shortlived because it detaches from people and their hearts.”

“The history of art and culture is documented by a cohort of creative people, and whether it will leave an imprint or vanish as time lapses will be decided by the collective voice of humanity, by how it remains legible and relatable to the future generations,” says Tan.

In the dissonance-ridden world, where even politicians and diplomats are searching for a way out, art practitioners might be the only way to restore a chorus, he says.